I thought I would tell about what I have been doing, lately, since, several important changes have taken place in my life with my art. For starters, I have joined 4 of Sebastian’s groups: Photoshop Artistry, AWAKE, Kaizen and 21 Days to Creative Abundance. Whereas the first and the last are more for individual help, the middle two are more about creating amazing art. There are some fabulous artists in these groups! I will tell about them at another time, though.

A while back, Teddi Rutschman, aka: FoxeySquirrel, who I have been friends with, online, for years, asked if I would be on her Creative Team. Well, she didn’t have to ask twice! I have so enjoyed playing with Teddi’s wonderful ‘ladies’ and textures and I love the ways in which she adorns her characters! Teddi is definitely one of a kind! I love her things! But, more than that, the time I spend playing with Teddi’s goodies, is more practice I get in. As it so turns out, too, many of my fellow artists use a lot of Teddi’s kits, as well as, other digi-scrapbooking kits and supplies. So, I see lots of different artist’s takes with Teddi’s things. Quite inspiring!

A few years ago, when I sort of resigned from scrapping, I was intent on creating artsy resources, which I did, but, more in a personal use way. I was leaving digi-scrapping behind! Then, I started to find digital scrapbooking folks who are getting in to an artsy-style of scrapbooking kits. I got to learn more techniques and practiced quite a bit this way! Like with Christine-Art’s hand-painted kits, as well. Putting together a set of specific elements and backgrounds, like what comes in a kit, can be quite challenging, but, fun! Great for practicing digital art!

Some of my favorite digi-scrap designers have moved to, or have added on, creating artsy kits. Magical Reality Designs has some fantastic artsy kits with Artistic Licensing available! I also noticed Kaklei Designs’ Karen Kleiman has been doing more and more artsy-style kits! Which is awesome because I won a place as a temporary Creative Team member in a contest of Karen’s recently! LOL

Karen invited me to participate in the challenge, so, I made my two layouts. There were 14 entrants, including me. This is the final layout of mine up for which everyone voted on.

I didn’t win First Place. In fact, there was a tie for First! I did place second, although, as with First, I placed in a tie for Second Place. I was extremely surprised! It is a 3-month Guest Designer position! I don’t particularly think of my art as dig-scrapping, but, it is very similar. I use an Envato Elements‘ photo and I am good to go! And, look at the beautiful colors and goodies in the kit from Karen, “Kindness”, now available.

The hardest thing for me to do is to post my art. I don’t know. I guess I don’t want to know what people think, so, I don’t go there. Lately, say, in the past 6 months, though, I have been somewhat more brave about it. I mostly post my images in my Behance Gallery. However, Brooke Shaden, of Promoting Passion, had an online “15 Day Creative Content Challenge”, back in August. For 15 days, following an exercise with Brooke each day, we were to create a layout. Brooke is noted for taking her own shots, mostly of herself, and using them in unusual ways for some of the greatest digital art online! It was necessary to post our daily layouts each day. Although, I did not snap any shots of myself to use, I did post each day’s image in my Behance Gallery for the Challenge. So, I got a little more used to putting my art ‘out there’. Since then, I have also posted more of my art in my groups, like AWAKE, Kaizen and Photoshop Artistry. The next step? Having my work published!

So, I create art and have joined some CT’s and get to practice! I just love art! And, that is me, lately!

One of the coolest things about digital art is that you can create anything you want! It’s your creation! Aside from usage rights, there is no end to what one can do artistically and digitally! I happen to like the ‘artsy’ look on my pieces. I want it to look like I spent time drawing, sketching, cutting and/or painting my works. Of course I do spend time on each piece, but, I can choose how involved I want to be. I decide if I want to paint with a Photoshop paint brush or find a suitable image or design kit that has the type of elements I want and like. Christine-Art‘s ‘Art Kits’ are just that for me.

I had all these ideas of creating artsy supplies to use in my pieces. I did create a bunch of stuff that I like to use myself. It was around that time, though, that I discovered other design folks were in to the same type of thing as I am – artsy-looking layouts or art works that have the look of having been done by hand. One of these design folks was Christine who is Christine-Art. In fact, I’m not sure, but, I believe she is among just a few who actually do sketch and color and cut and scan her own art to use as a ‘Art Kit’.

I have shared about Christine’s Art Kits before, but, I want to do so again, here. I am hooked on using her kits to come up with pieces that I like and enjoy creating.

To accompany some of her kit designs Christine has ‘workshops’ on her blog, based on some aspect of our humanity, our feelings, our lives. ‘Doubt‘ was one of them. She gave ideas, prompts and suggestions to ponder. I created two pieces with the kit: